


Spark This Fire

by StripedSunhat



Series: Single Father Klaus [4]
Category: Girl Genius (Webcomic)
Genre: Family Drama, Gen, Gil does not make being a parent easy, Pre-Canon, Why Gil needs therapy, Why Klaus needs therapy, Why Sparks need therapy, improper lab safety, these are not good patterns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2019-06-28 10:52:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15705765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StripedSunhat/pseuds/StripedSunhat
Summary: Klaus gave Gil unfettered access to a private lab.An explosion was less a possibility and more an eventuality.





	Spark This Fire

**Author's Note:**

> Because something had to properly explode at some point.
> 
> There is no conceivable way that Gil doing something stupid having - mostly - a handle on it, Klaus freaking out and someone ending up in medbay wasn't a pattern that was repeated near constantly throughout Gil's childhood.

Labs tended to explode. Labs belonging to Sparks were guaranteed to explode, usually when an experiment was at its most non-recreatable. Once when Klaus was in University one of his classmates had tried to prove it was possible to maintain an active lab containing Sparkwork in an undamaged state. To that end, he built a clank meant to put out fires and set it in the middle of his lab. Every day he would go into the lab, deliberately ignore the clank itself and work on the least destructive lab-work he could manage. That is, all the way up until one night when he got a bit too drunk and had the brilliant idea to improve his clank. Yes it could put out fires but imagine how much _better_ it would be if it could prevent fires before they even started! One thing led to another and well… An entire wing of the university blew up. Klaus took away the important lesson than the best way to protect a lab was with a solid, decidedly non-Sparkwork suppression system.

But the point was, labs exploded. It’s a basic, if annoying fact of life. Rather like seasonal allergies or mimmoth hair getting caught in the air filters. Gathering up as many of the strongest Sparks as he could onto Castle Wulfenbach meant that explosions were practically daily occurrences.

So when a dull boom shook through Klaus’s office he didn’t even look up from his paperwork. Years of running the empire had taught him that unless an explosion was extremely loud or accompanied with an excess of screaming it should be ignored. To do otherwise was to consign himself to doing nothing else.

What in heaven’s name did the kitchen staff need with that many bismuth widgets? And why had it taken this long to come to his attention?

**_Thump!_ **

**_Thump!_ **

“Enter!” Ground troops with no battle clanks or heavy-duty deep terrain walkers didn't any liquid helium so why did Company 14 have two liters?

**_Thump!_ **

**_Thump Thump!_ **

“I said come in!” And what was even going on with –

**_ThumpThumpThump!_ **

Klaus threw the reports onto his desk, stomping over to the door and flinging it open. “This had better be –” His knees were immediately accosted by a lobster in an overlong coat. “Wha– Zoing?”

Heep! Heep Heep! Heep Gil Heep! Gil Heep!”

Gilgamesh.

“What happened? What’s wrong with –” The explosion. Oh god, the explosion he’d ignored.

Klaus set off running.

Why did he make the lab so far way from his office? He barreled through a group of technicians knocking half of them over. This was so much worse than when Gilgamesh broke through. Why had he ever given him back access to the lab?

Let him be all right. Please, let him be all right.

There was black smoke pouring out of the hallway. “Gilgamesh!” Without thinking he charged inside.

The lab was on fire. Flames sprung up everywhere he looked. The fire system was steadily cycling through suppression methods but for every flame it doused there were two more left untouched.

“Gilgamesh!” Where was he? “Gilga–” He broke off with a hacking cough, smoke choking his lungs. “Gil! Gil answer me!”

A shadowy head popped up from behind a table. “Father?” Some sort of jury-rigged mask that covered the entirety of his head muffling his voice. The only part Klaus could see were the blurry shape of his eyes peering out from behind the warped piece of shielding glass in front of them. Gilgamesh’s head disappeared from sight only for him to appear around the corner a second later. His hands were clumsily wrapped in cloth, holding a beaker of furfuran. Klaus immediately snatched it out of his hands, setting it down on the closest table behind him.

“What happened to your hands?”

“My – Oh! Nothing. Some of the beakers were hot and I think the safety gloves already caught fire,” Gilgamesh calmly answered, like they weren’t currently standing in a lab that had recently _blown up_ and was still on _fire_.

“What are you _doing?_ ” he demanded, resisting, just barely, the urge to shake his son.

“The explosion knocked over some of the beakers in the back and I think the gas they created is poisonous so I created a mask to filter it out. Also the smoke tastes bad.”

“I meant why are you still in the lab at all!” **_That_** was what his son thought he was asking about? The _mask?_ Then the first half of what he said filtered through. “Poisonous!” Klaus’s resolve broke and he grabbed his son by his shoulders, shaking him hard. “What the hell were you thinking?”

“The lab’s still on fire. Some of the chemicals in the back corner are going to explode if the fire reaches them. The suppression system will put out the fires but that won’t help if the lab explodes again first.”

Klaus’s vision tunneled, going pitch black for a second. “That’s not a reason to stay! That’s just another reason to **_get out!!_** ”

He scooped Gilgamesh into his arms. He’d drag his son out if he had to. They would discuss his idiocy once they were safely _outside_. He stood up and his vision abruptly went black again.

Poison gas. His son had mentioned poison gas.

The world lurched and he felt himself falling.

The last thing he heard was his son screaming his name and a very, very loud boom.

* * *

 

Everything hurt.

That was the first thought Klaus could manage when he woke up.

Everything. Hurt.

He pried open his eyes to the ceiling of the medical wing. Well it was nice to know the entire airship hadn’t exploded. It certainly felt like it.

“Father?” a small, shaky voice asked. Immediately the circumstances right before the explosion flooded back to him. Gilgamesh! He pushed himself up in the bed. Or at least he tried to. Note to self: Sitting up, horrible idea. “Are you alright? Should I get Doctor Sun?”

“Doctor Sun isn’t on the airship.”

“Um, yes he is? You’ve been asleep for the last three days.” Three days. He’d lost three whole days. His eyes had shut again when he’d tried to sit up and he forced them back open, turning towards Gilgamesh’s voice. He was sitting up on a chair next to the bed.

“Gilgamesh. Are you alright?”

“I’m not hurt. You’re the one that got exploded.” Klaus ignored his words, choosing instead to study him over himself. “Doctor Sun checked me over himself. He said I was free to go whenever I wanted.”

Gilgamesh was alright. He let that fact fully soak in before turning to his next question. “How did I get out of the lab? The emergency teams hadn’t shown up yet.”

“Dietrich had. He helped me drag you out.” Of course he had. Klaus pushed the thought down, focusing on his son.

“You should be in class.”

“Doctor Sun let me stay so long as I sit still and don’t touch anything. And Madame Von Pinn said she’d handle things with the school for as long as I wanted to stay in Med wing.”

“Go to class Gilgamesh.”

“You wouldn’t wake up,” Gilgamesh said, staring resolutely down at his tightly clasped hands. “Doctor Sun said you’d be fine but you wouldn’t wake up.” He shifted in his seat. A white bandage peeked out of his sleeve.

“You said you weren’t injured,” Klaus said sharply.

“I’m not!”

“I do not appreciate being lied to Gilgamesh,” he growled.

“I’m sorry.” Gilgamesh bit his lip before continuing. “The gas really was poisonous. You sort of collapsed on top of me when you passed out so when the beaker exploded you were between me and it.”

“That is not an excuse to lie. And it brings up another very important point. Just what in the hell were you still doing in the lab?”

“I –”

“What is the first piece of lab safety we went over?”

“Don’t stay in the lab if it’s not safe.”

“Then why were you still inside?”

“It wasn’t that dangerous!”

“That is not your decision to make. The lab was full of _poison gas_ and _on fire._ ”

“I was being careful. The first thing I did is make a mask so –”

“A half-made mask is not an acceptable answer. What would you have done if the lab had exploded again with just you in it?”

“I had –”

“ _What would you have done_ if the lab had exploded again with just you in it?”

Gilgamesh deflated. “I’m sorry Father.”

“The lab is most likely totaled. It will probably take several weeks to repair. Not that I’d let you in a lab right now.” Gilgamesh remained slumped in his seat. “As soon as I am out of here we will be going over lab safety again. Clearly we did not go over it nearly thoroughly enough.”

“Yes Father.”

“You will not set foot in any lab until I’m satisfied that you actually understand what lab safety means and I’m certain you’ll actually follow it.”

“Yes Father.”

“I’m disappointed in you. You know better than this.”

Gilgamesh flinched. “I’m sorry Father.”

“You should be.” Klaus sighed. He wanted to scrub at his face but he wasn’t certain his hand would listen to him to do so. Go back to the school. We’ll discuss this further once I’m out of here.” Gilgamesh didn’t move from his seat.

“Go on. You’ve missed enough days as is.”

“But Madame Von Pinn said –”

“I don’t care what Von Pinn said. _I’m_ telling you to go back to the school.”

“Yes Father,” Gilgamesh said, reluctantly sliding off his seat. He was about halfway to the door when he stopped. “Can – Can I come back tomorrow?”

Klaus considered his son. “Briefly,” he finally allowed, “provided you’ve started catching up on your schoolwork by then.”

“Thank you Father.”

“Gilgamesh,” Klaus said just before he reached the door.

“Yes Father?”

“I’m alright. You’re alright too.”

“Yes Father.”

“Gilgamesh.”

“Yes Father?”

“Next time might not be so fortunate.”

Gilgamesh ducked his head. “Yes Father.”

The door closed with a soft snick. Klaus stared up at the ceiling. What would he have done if the lab had exploded again with just Gilgamesh in it? He forced himself upright and started working on improvements for the fire suppression system.

**Author's Note:**

> We all know how well the 'stay out of dangerous labs' lesson is going to sink in. Let Klaus try while he still has hope.


End file.
